Project & Product Management
Agile Project Management
I was formally trained in Agile when I was at Avaya. I have over 15 years experience integrating design deliverables directly into Agile development processes at every company I’ve worked at. An Agile-based design delivery timeline has the following information:
Stories and design epics
A design delivery timeline includes each Agile story which impacts design or has a design component. I reorganize stories from a user-centric perspective, creating, in effect, design epics which contain stories across multiple development teams. In the example above, I’ve grouped stories to create final mobile client app epic. I’ve identified user-facing features (e.g. call log and all message playback functionality), thus identifying individual stories which must be designed in conjunction with one another (see 4.7.1, 4.7, 4.11.42, and 4.11.44).
Scheduling
The blue bars show start dates and estimated time required to create (light blue), review (darker blue), update, and then deliver (dark blue) a final design for each story or set of stories. Gray arrows pointing to the right indicate the sprint when the development team(s) have said they will actually begin work on a given story or set of stories. The goal is to make sure all designs are delivered at the start of any given sprint, if not earlier. This is possible because Design participates in Sprint Zero planning along with Dev and PM.
For example, look at story 4.7.1, “Integrated call log and voicemail” above. Note the gray arrow extending off to the right—Development planned to start work on 4.7.1 in iteration (i.e. “sprint”) 5. From a design perspective, however, my team needed to work on 4.7.1 in conjunction with call log stories needed for Iteration 3.
Product Management
I have been a product manager for operating systems features as well as for consumer applications. Back then, PMs typically had broader responsibilities for product launch and marketing. This meant I wrote technical requirements in response to user, business, and competitive needs. But I was also responsible for designing and managing outbound marketing campaigns, working with PR, communicating with press and analysts, and establishing third-party developer relationships.
Apple Mac OS product manager
I was taught Apple product management principles in my role as Apple Mac OS product manager for printing, type, and graphics. This included a week of professional presentation and spokesperson training with an emphasis on communicating with press and analysts. These are skills I have relied on throughout my career.
Application and platform product management
After Apple, I was the Caere OmniPage Pro (OCR) application product manager solely responsible for product requirements, marketing materials, localization, CES presentations, and the Mac OS product launch.
I provided product management leadership at Parsable, HAN:DLE, and ACME in the absence of formal PM roles.
My PM background has given me invaluable experience working with and understanding the needs of developers, marketers, business development and finance teams, and members of the C-staff.